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Advice On A New-School Old-School BBS
An anonymous reader asks I am thinking about setting up a local "community" network over WiFi minus internet connection. In other words, I would like to run a small server isolated from the web as an experiment in small scale networks (e.g., serving a café-heavy one-block radius.)
I have plenty of clever ideas -- discussion/gripe boards, weird artistic projects -- anything to bring back the old-school BBS memories where online users were drawn from a single geographic location. But everything I've learned so far is how to act as a small node on someone else's network. How can I make my own -- and make it wireless?
Google doesn't pull much up that I can find: it is mostly targeted towards those building a (free or profit) Internet access point." (Read on for more.)
" Does anybody have sources of information for how to learn about setting up the network I have in mind? Basic tutorials and those covering more advanced issues such as security would be very helpful. Finally, is there anyone out there with real world experience? Beyond imparting technical help, do you have suggestions for implementation? What worked, and what didn't? Did the lack of internet access make the project unpopular? (And if you did provide internet access as a teaser, how did you handle liability and financial issues?)"
(This reminds me of the Community Memory Project; can anyone point to some modern equivalents?)
People are actually pining for the bad old days of the regional bbs, when we clung desperately to even the most tenuous connection to other nets?
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
I think that's the point of this project. To create an interesting oracle of information that is only available within the range of a WiFi signal... no connection to the outside world in or out available.
Be interesting to see if he can pull it off and get enough content and user interactivity to make it work...
I'm not quite sure how the limited-by-proximity access to a network is going to make it "safe" in terms of being spam/scam/scum feee. It'll limit the spammers/scammers/scummers to being those from the local area, but that still doesn't make it a kid-safe zone.
Seriously, why the hell would anyone want to do this? I come from the "old days," and I don't want to go back.
Why not put the internet to use? Do it in one place, then take it to other cities or towns. Why isolate yourself when it is now easier to be connected? You can still keep the information geographically seperate.
I am seeing some problems with this set up already. First and foremost, who will have the administraion privileges? Who says what can and cannot be put on this "bbs"? Who will have the physical equipment and/or the storage for this set up? Will there be censorship of things? Will games be allowed over the network? Just some things that flashed through my mind.
I found the "Any" key.
And these days, the magic distance is perhaps a quarter mile.
And you call that progress? ;)
I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
first suggestion - better make sure that anybody in the universe is interested in this project before you spend a lot of money and time on it. there's very little reason at all for anybody to participate in something like this when they can join the community of the internet at large, and still get the local flavor from local websites if they like.
d =9304955
having said that, you could probably accomplish just about everything you need with existing wireless access points with some hacked-up firmware. wi-fi box is offering free replacement firmware for the linksys WRT54G series access points that offers a captive portal and some advanced routing features including WDS. what this means is that you can display a splash page to anybody who types in an arbitrary URL (say, www.slashdot.org) and inform them that they only have access to a certain few pages (links provided of course.) with WDS you can chain multiple access point together wirelessly, although you may be best served splitting some areas into subnets and cabling them together with tradional CAT5.
there are other options for the WRT54G firmware - www.sveasoft.com is one of the most popular. just be careful with this one, because the author thinks that reselling GPL'd software for $20 is a great idea, and if you have the gall to say otherwise here on slashdot he'll ban your ass from his forums and ftp servers in a heartbeat. you can distribute his software as allowed by the GPL, but if he catches you doing it or questioning his policies he'll make sure you can't access the software anymore. here's my original post on sveasoft that lead to the banning in question: http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=109547&ci
the guy is a real pecker and probably doesn't deserve your $20 anyway.
This is a great idea, but I think you're limiting yourself artificially. You will probably have a hard time attracting wireless users to connect only to local content.
The BBSes that were really good were the ones that had decent content. If you lived in an area that had a lot of BBSes, the duller ones fell by the wayside pretty quickly. If anything kept them alive, it was the fact that you didn't get a busy signal when you tried to dial them.
Why not put something online that has very local content and let a broader cross-section participate? If the content is good, and you can get the word out, they will come.
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Give me liberty or give me something of equal or lesser value from your glossy 32-page catalog.
that means your WiFi should have a DHCP server that hands out 10.x.x.x (unroutable) addresses to anybody who wants to get one to get them on board.
There might be a technical detail I'm missing here, but is it strictly necessary to assign private IP addresses? I know it would be prudent, but not really a must, unless I'm missing something.
Trade Wars, Land of Devastation, L.O.R.D... those were the days. Offering people something they can jump into with no prior social contacts--and a reason to keep coming back every day--I think, would still be a way to bring people in.
Even though modem use is no longer an issue, a time limit every day keeps people coming back day after day.
I'm not sure you grasp the scale of his idea. He lives across the street from a Borders, a Starbucks and a Pizzaria Uno. He wants to stick an antenna on his windowbox and serve content to the patrons of said establishments.
One access point. This Old Box. Some pages. A forum. A chat room so guys can try to pick up that cute girl three tables down without actually having to approach and talk to her. Maybe some Trade Wars.
A browser based BBS for people standing next to him. That's it.
KFG
Several posters have made glib comments about this idea being retro and unworthy.
Let me tell you why I see this sort of grass-roots things as the wave of the future.
First and formost, the primary feature of this system is that it has no recurring cost [well, assuming you are using solar]. Free is good.
Next, there is no controlling authority with rules, regulations and contracts. You know that your rights are severely limited in the contract you signed with your internet provider right? Freedom is good.
These intranet hotspots will be by definition local. They always talk about web communities, but they arent really. A bunch of anonymous jerks out trolling each other. This idea allows for locals to get together and be social. Community is good.
This sort of setup has no agenda. No chinese shyster selling penis pills, no corporation telling you what to think.
No agenda is good.
The most interesting thing is the possibilities that arise from synergy with other hotspots and the internet itself. If the number of local hotspots becomes large, and they become ubiquitous, there will be bridges formed between them..again all free, expanding the social network in interesting ways. New cultures will arise from these interactions without the debilitating noise of too many voices.
Culture is good.
I envision in the future rather than wi-fi, we will see wi-max versions of this idea. The neat thing about this is that you will be able to bridge to internet via your home isp when you wish to, and still use of the local hotspot would be free.
1) a potential for becoming too large. I can't afford a server farm if popularity hits hard, can you? That is completely ignoring the massive additional administrative overhead and invariable loss of focus encountered by popular web sites.
2) a potential for shit disturbers. Everyone is a big tough man from a thousand miles away (Slashdot is an almost-too-perfect example of this). I have a hunch that things are very different when one knows that everyone on board is in the same general area.
I ran a BBS too, and I've yet to find a web site that offers any of the same intimacy that those old war-horses did, in addition to the things I mentioned above.
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Inventor of the term 'pardon my French'.
www is hugee, you don't have to restrict to a single area,
I think you might have missed the point of the article. He specifically wants geographical isolation. All this "freeom" the internet has given us has taken away something else. You just don't have the sense of community on the internet. You can't decide "Hey, this weekend let's meet at pub XYZ" and actually interact with these people as humans have evolved to do.
Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.
Edward Everett (1794 - 1865)
I think the biggest problem will not only be interest, but understanding. You're average user will be confused as to why this "network" doesn't have internet access. You have to remember that back in the BBS days, it was generally restricted to those who were not only in the know how, but could set it up (much easier to get internet access and surf the web). At any rate, good luck.
Actually, I wanted desperately to do something similar my first year of college. The need for it became more apparent as the university kept tightening restrictions on our internet use. They definitely said you couldn't host your own servers, and eventually they blocked almost every port. I also saw the need need for an anonymous message board and filesharing, also... but I didn't see a single person outside with their laptops, ever. There were plenty of ethernet plugs around, but our campus' wifi setup was a joke. Only worked within a few feet of certain buildings.
People didn't even take their laptops to class to take notes. Plus, I couldn't even gather enough money to get the equipment.
I'd love for this to work, but I honestly don't think people would take the time to get within range and setup their laptop to browse an intranet (if they even have a laptop or wireless card).
Maybe it's just too early (or maybe my university just sucked). I honestly don't think I'd have gotten a single hit on my BBS the entire time I was at college.
The only people that would use it would be the kind of people that wardrive. And you'd be lucky if they ever connected to your server. And even if they did that, they probably would move on to somewhere they get unrestricted internet access.
I'd love for it to work, but I know in my heart that no one would care about it. =(
First, BBS software is dead.. don't even think about attempting a telnet based sychronet, wwiv, or whatever other old bbs software you can find. I use to run a BBS, was very active 1990-1994ish in the BBS "scene" and I wouldn't even bother getting into something like this -- much less someone who never used a BBS before.
.. right?) --->
.. this says lots of high-bandwidth content.. Great way to get people interested? perhaps video personals.. I think for many, it would spark some interest in atleast checking out the system.
.. perhaps get some of the local radio stations involved (streaming their content over the network? perhaps some free publicity as well), web cams galore (its fun), discussion forums, etc..
Second, use Internet technologies -- DHCP, DNS, HTTP, etc.. its around, its free, its mature and generally speaking, pretty easy to setup in an intranet setup.
Third, focus on your advantages: #1 known demographic (same region) and #2 highspeed access (802.11B and higher
So you get lots of people together that have high speed versus broadband/dialup to the larger internet
Other content would be the local scene news -- where bands are playing, upcoming events, yada yada
Ultimately there *NEEDS* to be enough huge-bandwidth offerings to make people want to use the system.. too much of this same content is already available in the much more easily accessible Internet..
will be your success or demise.
May I suggest:
Offering free hosting for local artists. Kind of a community portfolio. Even better if you find someone with edgy or risque work.
Offering free hosting for local underground musicians. Include an "internet" radio station that broadcasts their content. Hell, even hook it up to the internet if you want. Most internet radio stations will let you setup playlists, so it doesn't have to be manned 24/7. I would even suggest putting the DJ "booth" live in one of the cafes for use by anyone walking by. Dyne:Bolic (www.dyne.org), a Mini ITX motherboard and case (mini-itx.org), and a CD drive is all you need...
Definitely get community games in there; they will drive your early adopters, who will in turn drive your widespread adoption.
Get a community sponsor to offer some monthly "door prizes"... a free coffee at the local coffee shop, family bowling, 50% off one title at the game store... for that matter, a local LAN gaming facility might be interested in co-sponsoring the whole thing in exchange for high visibility advertising in their target community...
I am disrespectful to dirt! Can you see that I am serious?!